It’s 2.30 in the morning and that might just have been the final flight of the ‘day’ into East Midlands airport passing directly overhead. That one sounded to be well below 500 ft. as it completed the final approach to the very nearby main runway. But if it was the last flight then it makes little difference because now it’s the lightening that’s keeping me awake and the downpour hammering on the marquee roof.
Welcome to Donington Park!
A few hours earlier it was so hot the sun was almost splitting the concrete in the paddock as the marquees were constructed and the burgers fried for dinner. Once that was done a quantity of wine was taken with some nice people just across the way who are into vintage trials. This weekend they are volunteer race marshalls. They clearly love their motor sport and reckoned to have used their trusty camper van on fifty five days last season in the pursuit of that love. They are the kind of people that make the whole sport tick. It was a nice evening.
It’s 6.30am and the rain has been constant for the last four hours. Oh joy. Britain in mid summer.
To open up the stall or to bale out and got home early? The stock is still safe and dry in the back of the car. Do I risk getting it out ? Will there be any point if this rain keep on falling? Would it be sensible to give up now and save a lot of effort? Will anyone even turn up?
No. Better to stay in bed and think it over. But the rain has run under the flaps of the marquee (it’s pitched on tarmac) and although the airbed is on a large tarpaulin, that’s been soaked through and the bed is nearly floating. But other than that nothing is really affected. Yet. Do I risk it?
My next door neighbour, Elinor Fielder of HERGEST HANDMADE HANDBAGS, has fared worse as some of her stock is in cardboard boxes have soaked up the water like sponges.
9.00 am. A conference of the assembled traders (five of us) has reached no decision as to whether it’s worth staying or going , so I’m wandering around having a look at what’s in the paddock and trying to convince myself either way. It’s still raining. Most of the cars are under covers , still in trailers or for the lucky ones, inside a pit garage.
The cloud is so low the airport appears to have delayed any landings. It’s been very quiet overhead until a DHL freighter looms out of the mist very low indeed and then disappears again into more cloud seconds later as it makes it’s final approach. Spooky. Annoyingly it was too fleeting a moment to even turn the camera on let alone take a photo. A little later another FLYBE turbo prop passes overhead but one of the photographers points out that’s actually the same one making it’s third attempted landing…
10.30 am. Breakfast has been cooked, numerous passers by have asked if I sell bacon rolls now and if I did I would have done good trade. There’s a steady procession of nice race cars being pushed past on the way to scruntineering. One’s an glorious Indy roadster. Some wag comments that they never raced in the rain at Indy. The consensus on the weather is it will dry up between 10 am and 2 pm and then get much worse. So I’m opening up and the plan is to get packed up again just after lunch.
12.30 pm. Well that weather window never arrived so having made a few sales, and talked to probably every single spectator who’s come through the turnstiles, I’ve had enough ‘fun’ for one day and it’s time to make a move. But it’s tipping down heavier now that at any point before. I’m chatting with former rally navigator Rob Lyall and the breeze is picking up. The marquee is weather proof but as we are all located on hard standing the ability to withstand strong wind is limited by the amount of weight hung odd the corners. In this case three 5 gallon barrels of water, one 56lb weight and a full size anvil…(think : ROAD RUNNER cartoons, and what the Coyote always tries to drop on the fleet footed bird.) The marquee is also lashed to my trailer and in dire emergency the car can be brought round to the front and further straps applied. All good fun.I think.
2.30 pm The weather is having a laugh. It’s gone and dried up while we were all packing away – although it’s too late to make any difference to the paltry spectator count. It has been making the task of repacking the trailer a lot easier.
As I finish that task and lash the now-empty water barrels onto the top I can see Mark Walker’s wonderous 200HP Darraq Land Speed Record car(above) parked at the nearby petrol pumps. All engine and very little else really! What a great machine. And he drives it on the road.
On the way out I’m inadvertently in the queue for the assembly area and follow a brace of T35 Bugatti’s as they head out for their race. It’s 2.45 pm and the M42 beckons. Not the best of events but you can’t avoid the odd duffer I guess. At least there was no harm done to any of the stock.
Prescott is next. No low-flying airliners scheduled for 2.30 in the morning there – lets hope there’s no rain either!
UPDATE - The meeting was Donington cancelled soon afterwards as visibility fell to near zero in monsoon rains!
